Abstract:
Living in and with a changing world has always been a reality. Education research has forever been tackling the changes experienced by schools. A myriad of solutions has emerged as to how to overcome challenges. So, with all these solutions, why are we still asking the generic question: What role does and can education research play in the face of global crises that are also being lived out locally? (Interpreted as a problem requiring intervention.), rather than asking: What role does and can education research play in building capacity locally to think globally? Our purpose in this presentation is to switch the mindset and the relative language to focus on who and what matters in schools, and how research is enacted with schools – co-researchers in context.
Our research and discussions with school leadership teams have been based on data drawn from surveying school community perceptions of school outcomes and successes. Hundreds of survey data sets spanning two decades, administered across schools in varying education systems across Australia have gathered the staff, parent, and student perspectives of school outcomes and the elements that contribute to those outcomes. One finding that has persisted over time has been the relatively low student perspective about their well-being indicated by two items: a) lack of alignment amongst teachers, students, and parents regarding the expectations of student achievement; and b) an overall perspective shared by teachers, students, and parents that students do not contribute to the way they learn. These two perspectives become obvious in the student perspective about their overall state of well-being, that is, their self-esteem, sense of worth, respect of others, sense of pride, and active engagement in their learning.
The researchers’ experience has shown that imperative to the success of school improvement is the engagement of the researchers with the school leadership team for data-informed decision-making to identify areas for improvement and implementation strategies to address challenges. The experience of one school’s principal will be the highlight of this presentation illustrating how the leadership team developed school improvement strategies that elicited the agency of students in their learning and wellbeing.
The conclusion drawn is the realisation that alignment of internal and external co-researchers is one of social capital engaging people to own their data, form strong relationships with significant others, develop a sense of valued contribution, and manifest a sense of agency and advocacy.
Our research and discussions with school leadership teams have been based on data drawn from surveying school community perceptions of school outcomes and successes. Hundreds of survey data sets spanning two decades, administered across schools in varying education systems across Australia have gathered the staff, parent, and student perspectives of school outcomes and the elements that contribute to those outcomes. One finding that has persisted over time has been the relatively low student perspective about their well-being indicated by two items: a) lack of alignment amongst teachers, students, and parents regarding the expectations of student achievement; and b) an overall perspective shared by teachers, students, and parents that students do not contribute to the way they learn. These two perspectives become obvious in the student perspective about their overall state of well-being, that is, their self-esteem, sense of worth, respect of others, sense of pride, and active engagement in their learning.
The researchers’ experience has shown that imperative to the success of school improvement is the engagement of the researchers with the school leadership team for data-informed decision-making to identify areas for improvement and implementation strategies to address challenges. The experience of one school’s principal will be the highlight of this presentation illustrating how the leadership team developed school improvement strategies that elicited the agency of students in their learning and wellbeing.
The conclusion drawn is the realisation that alignment of internal and external co-researchers is one of social capital engaging people to own their data, form strong relationships with significant others, develop a sense of valued contribution, and manifest a sense of agency and advocacy.